Manjunath R

THE SEVEN WASTES OF LEAN What is Waste in a process: Waste is any step or action in a process that is not required to complete a process (called “Non-Value-Adding”) successfully. When Waste is removed, only the steps that are required (called “Value-Adding”) to deliver a satisfactory product or service to the customer remain in the process. Type of waste in the process as per Lean methodology: Waste related to Quantity: Transport Inventory Over production Waste related to People Motion Waiting Over processing Skill underutilization Waste related to Quality Defect Based on my experience, I am giving the examples for each type of waste and solution recommended 1. Transport: waste is material or process movement that is not directly associated with a value adding process. As Is process: In one of the engagement, to perform the monthly reward and recognition (R&R); team use to get the R&R certificate printed in Pune location (as per operation, having better control by maintaining the centralized process) and use to send the certificate Bangalore over office courier. Process owner use to sign it and send back the Pune certificate again using office courier. Waste in the process: This is a clear example of Transport waste where Movement of certificate from Pune to Bangalore and back to Pune Solution implemented: Get the Bangalore certificate printed over here in Bangalore and Pune certificate printed in Pune and get the digital signature of process owner. 2. Over production: Waste is producing more than needed 3. Inventory: waste is stock and ‘work in process’ more than the requirements As Is process: in P2P process, Invoice clearing team use process job and logout at 03:00 AM IST, however the Indexing team uses to process till 5:00 AM IST. This job use to be in the Invoice clearing team queue next day. Waste in the process: This is a clear example of Over production and Inventory waste where Indexing team is processing the more job and making it wait in Invoice processing team’s queue Solution implemented: Performed analysis on volume flow from client and suggested multiple shift in Invoice processing team. By this, eliminated both Over production and Inventory waste. 4. Motion: Waste of motion is any motion of man or equipment that does not add value to product or service 5. Waiting: Waste of waiting is any idle time produced when 2 interdependent processes are not completely synchronized As Is process: In P2P process, it was asked Indexing team to push the duplicate invoices to Invoice hold queue. And in SOP of team whore are handling Invoice hold queue were asked to trash the duplicate invoices. Waste in the process: This is a clear example of both Motion and Waiting where unnecessarily duplicate invoice use to go to Invoice hold queue and wait there to get trashed Solution implemented: Change the SOP of Indexing team where, if they see the duplicate invoice then trash the invoice immediately. 6. Over processing: Over Processing is putting more into the product than is valued by the customer. As Is process: In segregation of duty (SOD) process, it was required to get the 5 layers of approval, before giving the application access to new joiners Waste in the process: This is a clear example of Over processing waste where unnecessary approvals are placed and each approval had a TAT of 5 WD. Solution implemented: Discussed with the clients and ensure that there is no business reasons for this multiple approval and removed the 3 layers of approval for new joiners. 7. Skill underutilization: Not using the full potential of individual As Is process: In one of the engagement, client agreed for higher billing rate and demanded for experienced resource for there job. Due to this, company hired all the team members are SME level (by designation); however, they were required to do the processing of the job (analyst level job) Waste in the process: This is a clear example of skill underutilization waste where experienced resources were asked to do the analyst level job i.e. processing the job with daily target. Solution implemented: There was no solution deployed by me, however team suffered huge attrition within 6 months as team member were not exited with the job they were doing. 8. Defect: additional work performed on a product or service due to not processing job correctly first time Most of my projects are around mitigating Defect and due to this, I am not giving any specific example for the same. Conclusion: AS per me, in service industry, there is lot of scope for Lean improvements then pure Six Sigma projects. And also in Lean improvements elimination of 8 Waste in the process will be definitely low hanging fruits.

Central Tendency VS Spread Measure of Central Tendency: A measure of central tendency is a measurement of central location of set of data. This is generally done by measuring Mean: This is equal to the sum of all the values in the data set divided by the number of values in the data set. Also known as Average value. Median: The median is the middle score for a set of data that has been arranged in order of greatness. Mode: The mode is the most frequent score in our data set Measure of Spread: Measures of spread explains how similar or varied the set of observed values are for a set of data. This includes Range: The range is the difference between the smallest value and the largest value in a dataset. Quartile: Quartiles divide an ordered dataset into four equal parts, and refer to the values of the point between the quarters. A dataset may also be divided into quintiles (five equal parts) or deciles (ten equal parts). Interquartile range: The interquartile range (IQR) is the difference between the upper (Q3) and lower (Q1) quartiles, and describes the middle 50% of values when ordered from lowest to highest. Variance: The variance measures the spread of the data around the mean. Variance is the expectation of the squared deviation of a random variable from its mean. Standard deviation: The standard deviation measures of the spread of the data around the mean or dispersion of a set of data from its mean. It is calculated as the square root of variance by determining the variation between each data point relative to the mean. Example of situation where variation (spread) is of highest importance and central tendency is very low in importance (or is irrelevant.): Example 1: Age of demography: Demography is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. And In the given example and with the explanation given above, if you want to determine the age of demography, you should not take the measure of central tendency and say that average age of given demography is “X”. Ideally in this case you should use the measure of Spread and give the Range of populations age, how the population spread when they are put in to different quartile etc… Example 2: Height of the door for below given data: Data: 5.73 ft, 5.51 ft, 4.37 ft, 4.82 ft, 4.28 ft, 4.91 ft, 4.27 ft, 4.41 ft, 4.97 ft and 4.34 ft In the given example and with the explanation given above, if you want to determine the height of the door, you should not take the measure of central tendency and say that average height of the given data is 4.76 ft so the height of the door must be 4.76 ft. Ideally in this case you should use the measure of spread and make the height of the door so that even the 5.73 ft person can easily go through the door.

Kano Model I think this would be the smallest writing on concept or questions I have attempted. I am not going to explain what is Kano Model, because this is already called out in the question and the question is not about what is Kano Model. But it is about how you are going to put Kano Model to effective use once you understand the specific product or service? As per me, Kano Model is the birth of Research and Development in any company (in my views ). I am making this statement because; this model will not only help you to identify “What is Basic need”, and “what is performance need”. But also help you to identify “What is excitement needs” of the customer. Based on this structure. This model helps one to understand two things i.e. Understand the end customer need Understand the competitor’s capability in meeting these end customer needs If you can clearly put this model to good use, then you can clearly be the “Market Leader” by just understanding what exactly make customer exited and where is your competitor in the race to meet those customers’ needs and by working on his own Research and Development field to ensure that you are always one step ahead of your competitor in meeting the things which excite customer. Note: QFD can be used for this i.e. Output of QFD can be used to plot a Kano Model and understand clearly what are those which excite customer

STABLE PROCESS AND CAPABLE PROCESS Differentiate between a stable process and a capable process. Is Process Stability supposed to be a pre-requisite for all type of processes? Explain with appropriate examples… What is Process Stability― Is the variation obtained when the same person measures the same unit with the same equipment over an extended period of time. It is used for checking Data Homogeneity (Special causes are present or not). It can also be explained as the ability of the process to perform in a predictable manner over time, and the data is collected in a random manner. If the sample data is not stable, it would mean that the data is coming from 2 or more different processes. In this case, it is useless for any prediction about the population. The following things are checked for stability using RUN CHARTS Trends: Trend are sustained and systematic source of variation characterized by a group of points that drift either up or down. Trend warns that a process is about to go out of control. Oscillations: Oscillation is when the data fluctuates up and down rapidly, indicating that the process is not steady. Mixtures: Mixture is characterized by an absence of points near the center line or mean. Mixture often indicates combination of two populations, or two processes operating at different level. Clusters: Cluster may indicate variation due to special causes, such as measurement problem, or sampling from bad group of parts. Cluster are group of pints in one area of the chart. Thumb Rule: If the p-value for all the above is greater than “0.05” process is considered stable i.e. Ho = Data is Stable Ha = Data is not stable So, if the p-value for all the above is greater than “0.05”, then you fail to reject null hypothesis What is Process capability ― Is the ability of a process to produce required output within specification limits specified by customer. This is the overall capability at which the process is operating. Process capability is measured by Z value. More the Z value is better the process capability. The above definition give lead to two terminologies i.e. Upper Specification Limit (USL): A value that is specified by customer and represents the highest range of a variable. The upper specification limit is the benchmark below which a product or service performs. In addition, the upper specification limit is often accompanied by a lower specification limit, but not always, as many products will have only one control limit. Lower Specification Limit (LSL): A value that is specified by customer and represents the lowest range of a variable. The lower specification limit is the benchmark above which a product or service performs. Who to calculate process capability: To calculate the process capability, we need to calculate “Z” value. “Z” value is calculated as per the below chart Data Type Continuous Data Discrete Data Normal Data Non Normal Data Binomial Poisson Normal capability Analysis to find Z Value Respective capability analysis to find Z value Binomial capability analysis to find Z value Poisson capability analysis to find Z value Difference between Process Stability and Process Capability Process Stability Process capability Is the variation obtained when the same person measures the same unit with the same equipment over an extended period of time Is the ability of a process to produce required output within specification limits specified by customer We check "Trends", " Oscillation", "Mixture" and " Cluster" to see whether process is stable or not We check "Z" value to see whether process is capable or not Limit specified in stability check is process upper control limit and process lower control limit Limit specified in capability check is customer upper specification limit and customer lower specification limit upper control limit and process lower control limit is coming from process performance upper specification limit and lower specification limit is coming from customer requirement Answer to the question “Is Process Stability supposed to be a pre-requisite for all type of processes” Yes – even before proceeding with further analysis of identifying the potential cause (i.e. “x”) for the identified effect (i.e. “Y”), one should bring the process to stability by addressing the reason for non-stability or out layers. Once the out layers are addressed and if you see that the process is capable, then you need to take the buy in of stakeholder to whether to pursue the project or to stop there If you see that the process is not capable, then proceed with your project to bring the process within the capability.

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Is overemphasis on VOC be detrimental to business? Voice Of Customer (VOC): VOC is a term used in business to describe the detailed process of capturing customer's expectations, preferences and dislikes. Different mode of collecting VOC: There are several modes of collecting VOC. Most famous method are: SURVEYS: A method of gathering information from a sample representing the population. These are comprehensive data driven information vehicles that are useful in capturing customer requirements as well as measuring performance against those requirements. FOCUS GROUPS: In this you group together similar customers and ask for their opinion on the requirements as well as performance against those requirements. INTERVIEWS: could be informal or Structured. Informal interviews give good insight into the customer perspective of the product and services and depends on probing open ended questions. FEEDBACK: the customer feedback comes through direct and different channels. Internal: employee feedback External: reports from known sources COMPLAINTS: The customer complaints or escalations to the business head about their dissatisfaction regarding not meeting their business requirements Purpose of VOC: The main purpose of collecting VOC by adopting different modes is to understand what is customer actual business requirement/expectation and to gage whether are we meeting this requirement/expectation (i.e. to see are we providing best in class service/quality). Risk in overemphasis on VOC: Some time there are few risk in overemphasis on VOC. This can be easily understood by below real-time example which I experienced during one of the continuous improvement project in F&A. Line of business: Finance & Accounts: This customer has outsourced the end to end F&A business to one of the highly reputed BPO where I worked VOC: The voice of customer we received during C-SAT survey was “I am highly dissatisfied with the accounts payable team as team is not paying the invoice on time” VOC to CTQ: No delay in paying the invoice to the end customer. In other words; “Invoice pay date must not exceed vendor pay term from the date of generation of invoice” e.g. If vendor pay term is 60 days and if invoice is generated on 1st of Jan 2018; then invoice payment date must not exceed 1st of March 2018 Action taken to address this customer issue: As this was the direct feedback got from strategic customer during C-SAT survey, operations team started tracking the instance where the overdue payment was happening to the end customer. During this study, operation team realized that overdue payment is happening only because of the unique pay cycle which is agreed with one of the customers bank by our customer for few end customers. That is, this specific bank will pay every Wednesday of a week. So, any invoice which is due on Thursday will be paid on next Wednesday due to this pay cycle. e.g. To explain with above situation, If vendor pay term is 60 days and if invoice is generated on 1st of Jan 2018; then invoice payment date was 1st of March 2018 (i.e. Thursday). So, this invoice will be paid on 7th March 2018 Due to urgency in mitigating the customers concern or because of overemphasis on customer feedback, operations team started setting the pay day one week earlier in customer application for those specific end customers who are paid through this bank e.g. If vendor pay term is 60 days and if invoice is generated on 1st of Jan 2018; then make invoice payment date as 60 – 7 i.e. 53. So, this will be due on 23rd Feb 2018 but will be paid on 28th Feb 2018 By doing this, for sure there won’t be any late or overdue payment Challenges faced due to overemphasis on above VOC: By doing this, the operations team have ensured that there won’t be any overdue payment, but the business risk what they have faced is that; team has started making early payment for those specific end customers e.g. If vendor pay term is 60 days and if invoice is generated on 1st of Jan 2018; then make invoice payment date as 60 – 7 i.e. 53. So, this will be due on 23rd Feb 2018 but will be paid on 28th Feb 2018. So paid one day early than agreed pay date And end up in a situation where they breached the pay term set by customer’s procurement team. Summary: So, without going in to the details of what happened next. I would like to highlight that, there could be a situation where overemphasis on voice of customer can lead to business risk.

Hi All – Good day, My answer to question what would be the sequential series for process mapping in an organization with increasing level of detailing is that: 1. SIPOC (Level 1 process map): This will give the sky view of the end to end business detail to the end user. i.e. Supplier – Input – Process – Output - Customer Now I will be working on “P” of SIPOC i.e. Process. This stage of SIPOC can be explained in 3 different layers. Details are given below: 2. Top down flow chart (Level 2 process map): where the flow of process is drawn either using Visio or in any other M S application by using commonly used symbols in flow chart. Arrow - Direction of flow from one step or decision to another. Diamond - Decision based on a question. The question is written in the diamond. More than one arrow goes out of the diamond, each one showing the direction the process takes for a given answer to the question. (Often the answers are “ yes” and “ no.”) Semi-circle - Delay or wait Circle - Link to another page or another flowchart. The same symbol on the other page indicates that the flow continues there. Rounded rectangle or oval - Alternate symbols for start and end points 3. Swim Lane Flow Chart / Cross functional flow chart (Level 3 and Level 4 process map): is a visual element used in process flow diagrams, or flowcharts, that visually distinguishes job sharing and responsibilities for sub-processes of a business process. Swim lanes may be arranged either horizontally or vertically. The purpose of this process map is to define the boundary of the process and may be identify the voice of the customer. Generally, this type of flow chart can be used at 3 different level and this level differ from organization to organization: Level 3: Provides the details at end to end of the process at different department including roles of the department, Input of the department and Output of the department Level 4: Details in this level of process map is almost same as the steps mentioned in Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 4. Value stream process map (Level 5): This is a lean manufacturing or lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer. The purpose of value stream process map is to identify waste between and within the process or process steps. These are detailed process mapping focus on both time stamp and material flow to identify value added steps and non-value-added steps.